Will Open Core Steal The Thunder of Open Source

Open Core is the new buzzword in the world of Open Source. According to this new ideology, the product as a whole is not available as Open Source. However, the core of the application, which powers its features and functionalities, is available as open source for others to build upon. This makes the task of application developers tougher but proves profitable for the company itself as well as its sponsors.

The ideology of Open Core might not be new though. The current Eclipse license is already doing something similar by allowing companies to share a common code and selling proprietary applications and features built on top of it. This makes everyone happy.

The dark side though is that this might be misused by some developers who will tend to release incomplete versions of their products as Open Core and wait for others to take it higher.

Open Core is indicative of the fact that the Open Source business model is tending to fall and is looking for other solutions which are better at generating revenue. [Via: ZDNet ]